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Some local schools still waiting on COVID supplies

Federal government has yet to provide Alberta with millions of promised medical-grade masks, rapid tests
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Some Alberta schools were still waiting on shipments of rapid tests and medical-grade masks from the province, which in turn is waiting on millions of tests and masks to come from the federal government.

By the end of Jan. 14, several of the schools in the Pembina Hills School Division were still waiting for the shipments of medical-grade masks and rapid tests that were supposed to come from the provincial government as part of the return to in-person learning. 

Pembina Hills Supt. Michael Borgfjord confirmed in a call on Friday morning that Dunstable School, R.F. Staples School in Westlock, Busby School, Fort Assiniboine School, the Westlock Outreach program and Vista Virtual School had received masks and rapid tests. 

“The rest of our schools have not received them yet,” he said, adding that some additional masks and tests were supposed to arrive later that day. 

Ross Hunter, communications officer for Aspen View Public Schools, stated in an e-mail that the division had opted to have all its masks and tests delivered to one central location and then deployed to schools, which would have occurred on Jan. 13. 

He did not specify whether there was a sufficient supply of masks and tests for all schools, so it is unknown if Aspen View had similar supply issues. 

During the news conference where Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced that K-12 students would return to in-person learning on Jan. 10, she stated that 10 million rapid tests and medical-grade masks would be distributed to all schools as an added layer of protection against the Omicron variant. 

As noted on the Pembina Hills website, all students were supposed to be provided with 20 masks — enough for two masks a day over 10 days of school. (Grade 4-12 students in all schools are still required to wear masks in common areas, while Kindergarten to Grade 3 students are strongly recommended to wear them.) 

Those shipments were supposed to start the week before Jan. 10 and be completed by the end of the following week. 

However, during the Jan. 13 provincial COVID update, Premier Jason Kenney stated that some of the rapid tests and masks procured by the federal government would be arriving later than expected. 

“Regrettably, this delay will affect the timing of rapid test shipments for some schools. But schools have now received about 58 per cent of the initial supply of tests, and as soon as we receive additional tests, we’ll get the remaining 42 per cent allocated, re-packaged and re-distributed,” Kenney said.

Kevin Berger, TownandCountryToday.com


Kevin Berger

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